Translation of the song lyrics Verdi: La traviata / Act 1 - "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (Brindisi) - Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, The London Opera Chorus

Verdi: La traviata / Act 1 - "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (Brindisi) (original)

Libiamo, libiamo ne’lieti calici
che la belleza infiora.
E la fuggevol, fuggevol ora s’inebrii
a volutt?.
Libiam ne’dolci fremiti
che suscita l’amore,
poich? quell’ochio al core onnipotente va.
Libiamo, amore, amor fra i calici
pi? caldi baci avr?.
I calici pi? caldi baci avr?
I calici pi? caldi baci avr?
Tra voi tra voi sapr? dividere
il tempo mio giocondo;
Tutto? follia, follia nel mondo ci?
che non? piacer.
Godiam, fugace e rapido
e’il gaudio dell’amore,
e’un fior che nasce e muore,
ne pi? si pu? goder.
Godiamo, c’invita, c’invita un fervido
accento lusighier.
Godiamo, la tazza, la tazza e il cantico,
la notte abbella e il riso;
in questo, in questo paradiso ne scopra il nuovo d?.
La vita? nel tripudio
Quando non s’ami ancora.
Nol dite a chi l’ignora,
E’il mio destin cos…
Godiamo, la tazza, la tazza e il cantico,
la notte abbella e il riso;
in questo, in questo paradiso ne scopra il nuovo d?.

Verdi: La traviata / Act 1 - "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (Brindisi) (translation)

Let us drink, let us drink from goblets of gladness,
where beauty scatters petals in bloom—
let the swift, the vanishing hour grow drunk
on the honeyed edge of rapture.
Let us drink deep the tremor of sweetness,
the trembling your nearness awakes in the heart,
for your glance is an arrow, stunning the sovereign soul.
Let us drink, my love, love gleaming through crystal,
and bask in the fire of your lips’ warmest kiss.
These goblets are brimming with kisses of flame,
these goblets are brimming with kisses of flame.
Among you, among you, I will learn to portion out
my hours of joy, spilling gold through my hands;
All else—is folly, the world’s delirious masque,
all not woven of pleasure’s bright skein.
Come, seize what flees—love’s joy rushes headlong,
swift as a jewel cast into the current;—
a blossom that lives for the dawn, and dies by dusk,
never to taste of delight again.
Let us delight, for a fervent voice calls us, calls—
in accents as soft as velvet on skin.
Let us delight—lift the cup, and the song,
while the night glimmers, laughter ringing like glass;
in this, in this brief paradise, let us greet the newborn day.
Life is a festival, a riot of color,
before love has claimed its due.
Tell it not to the soul that lies dreaming—
such is my fate, sealed as the stars…
Let us delight—lift the cup, and the song,
while the night glimmers, laughter ringing like glass;
in this, in this brief paradise, let us greet the newborn day.